


The Hunt

by Duender



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, F/F, F/M, Gen, Inspired by Ready Player One, M/M, Video & Computer Games, Virtual Reality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:34:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26069539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duender/pseuds/Duender
Summary: The Hunt.An impossible clue.A prize people will kill for.The moment Harry James Potter cracks the first clue, the race is on. And the only way to survive is to win.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | Voldemort
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been inspired by the book and movie Ready Player One!  
> I own nothing that has been mentioned in this story except the plot deviations.

Little Whinging, like most other places on the planet, was a crowded, bustling place with a gloomy, grimy atmosphere. The entire area was filled with tiny houses crammed next to each other, thin walls the only thing that gave each family some semblance of privacy.

Each building housed anywhere from three to thirteen people, despite all of them being the exact same size. There was one grubby super market in the area to supply every single person cramped into the small area - suffice to say, it was never stocked fully.

Harry Potter was a resident of Number 4, Privet Drive, a tiny white house that had the fortune of being on the edge of the forest (along with twelve other houses) and therefore had a small yard.

Harry knew that little patch of green like the back of his hand - he had spent his youngest years taking care of it. 

He also knew the forest very well - it wasn’t very dense, and every few metres you would find an abandoned vehicle or scrap metal that had been disposed of. It was one such abandoned truck that Harry found his escape in; a place he ran to every morning after buying some food from the supermarket for his ‘family’ and stealing some for himself.

It was quite some way inside the jungle and looked completely unusable from the outside, considering it was a truck crushed between two boulders. But there was an opening to enter the bed of the truck, and that was the place where Harry found himself every single day, from as early in the morning as possible till as late as he could stay out of the Dursleys’ house. If it were up to him, he would spend every second in that little corner of his, but he did need to return to Little Whinging to procure food from somewhere, and that meant remaining in the Dursleys’ good graces and acting as their errand boy until he could leave the place.

The truck was a large one - a professional wrestling match could be held in the bed - and perfectly suited for Harry’s needs. Because from the ceiling of the vehicle were suspended a few ropes, something that would make sure he was suspended very slightly in the air comfortably and provide him with full range of motion without him bumping into things. He could run in one spot - the straps would make sure he didn't move from his place - and the slight upward pull made it easier to do a flip if need be. 

It wasn’t as fancy as an immersion sphere of the OIB Ninety-four Hundreds, but it let him run and kick and perform gymnastic tricks in one spot, and that’s all he needed. Of course, someone could have full range of motions of their avatar with just the haptic gloves, but letting his body move around with his avatar and getting some exercise was something Harry preferred. He didn’t want to end up like his cousin, a baby walrus who spent all his time on a couch.

A few feet away was a shelf where he could place his lunch and snacks for the day, an extension cord that was connected to the solar panel Hagrid, the large friendly mechanic in the area, had built for him, and a box with a lock, the key to which he wore around his neck and had managed to keep safe for years. 

That box contained his most precious possessions - haptic gloves and the DH visor headset - his entrance into the world where he could be himself.

  
  
  


___________________________

  
  


Harry had been a mere toddler when the OASIS had been opened to the public, and six when he finally stepped into the world humanity was rapidly shifting to. His relatives had not been very happy to learn that he was going to join them in the OASIS for his schooling when the elementary school decided to go online like everything else, and had wasted no time in establishing some ground rules - the first of them being that he was not to approach them inside the simulation under any condition.

He had, of course, been more than happy to oblige, and spent his time after virtual school exploring the things he could without spending money.

The OASIS had a huge advantage over the real world - they received money for things like virtual land and teleportation - things that were merely 1s and 0s and could be generated out of nothing. It was what paid the designers and programmers their salaries, and the thing that kept OASIS free for all. Companies paid ridiculous amounts to buy their own planets, setting up offices and stores for anything that wasn’t a necessity in the physical world - the finer things like jewellery was much more appreciated in the OASIS, after all, than in the dusty grimy world outside.

And it also kept people coming back - converting real life dollars and yens and rupees and euros to credits, the currency of the OASIS, to buy things and to travel. For a small fee, anyone could teleport to anywhere in the OASIS, across an entire system consisting of hundreds of planets. They could, of course, buy their own mode of transportation, like a spaceship, though they would also have to pay for virtual fuel. 

It was the tiny things that allowed OASIS to be accessible for free by the entire world, and it was the free access that let humanity be entrenched into a virtual simulation and feel at home. 

Really, the only time people left the simulation was to eat, drink, sleep and occasionally visit the loo. Every other thing, from education to socializing, took place in the huge servers of the game. 

Another thing that made people fall in love with the OASIS was the fact that their appearance or background could not hold them back - they could be anyone or anything they wished, look exactly like a Calvin Klein or Victoria’s Secret (famous fashion brands from a few decades ago) model or an entirely alien species if they so wished. 

They could build themselves from the ground up, gaining experience and levelling up, earning money through various things like online PvP battlezones, quests, online jobs or a hundred other things, convert the virtual gold to real life currency and buy necessities.

They could meet, fall in love with, and have an entirely virtual family with someone from across the world without ever actually meeting them. 

They could _live_ in the OASIS, in a way they would probably never be able to in the real world. And really, with the extremely high quality three dimensional surroundings, the haptic VR gloves and the DH headset that let you feel pain and pleasure and affected your brain to let you use _all five senses,_ it was sometimes quite impossible to tell that you were inside a game.

But really, the major reason for the constant daily influx of people into the OASIS was the Hunt.

  
  


___________________________

  
  


Gellert Grindelwald was a true genius, an undisputed fact. The creator of OASIS had, before the release of the MMORPG that took over the world, programmed several famous video games, along with an old friend, Albus Dumbledore, and practically dominated the video game industry, building up a company called the Deathly Hallows. The two close friends had reached the top of the hierarchy in a very short period of time, gaining billionaire statuses in a mere four years.

In the mid 2060s, after the release of an extremely popular RPG game called Numengard, there was radio silence from the titans of the gaming world. And in 2073, the human race was gifted with a literal masterpiece - the OASIS. Somewhere around 2077, there was a huge argument between Grindelwald and Dumbledore, which led to Grindelwald taking over as the sole owner of the Deathly Hallows and Dumbledore storming out on him.

No one really knew about what happened, as both men were extremely tight-lipped about it, but there were more interesting things to think about. In the beginning, OASIS merely had twelve planets, one of which was the planet where new avatars spawned, and another three were for educational purposes. But in the next five years after the game’s release, the OASIS expanded massively. 

From battle arenas to racing tracks and from old video game recreations to first-person playable movies and books, the simulation blew up; hundreds of planets were created, the coding for schools were enhanced, making online schooling a much more appealing, and frankly more viable, option for students and teachers alike. Businesses began moving online; people began caring more about their avatars' looks; the world slowly went virtual. And then a legend died.

Gellert Grindelwald’s death was a shock - the man had been in the last year of his fifties, and mostly in good health. But the real question was, what was going to happen to the OASIS? The creator had had no heir; his business partner and friend held no claim to even a single stock in the company (Albus Dumbledore had gracefully retired with plenty of money; no one could deny that Gellert still cared for his friend).

Seven hours after his death, a video clip was released. It was short, merely four minutes and thirty two seconds. But it was the quietest four minutes on planet Earth, for sure, and held the most ground-breaking news in history.

The clip began with Gellert’s avatar, a man that looked like a young, powerful him, dressed in old-fashioned, expensive looking robes. He went on to explain the little Easter Egg he had hidden in his game.

The Hunt. Three keys, three gates. The keys were not literal keys, and the gates were more like tasks, the man explained. The first person to finish the Hunt would gain Gellert Grindelwald’s _entire_ fortune; including his money and complete ownership of the OASIS.

“Three hidden keys open three secret gates  
Wherein the errant will be tested for worthy traits  
And those with skills to survive theses straits  
Will reach the end where the prize awaits.”

The video and the hint became the most scrutinized piece of media in history. Every ‘gunter’, or egg hunter, knew every second of Gellert’s last message by heart. 

Harry James Potter was no exception. Living with people who hated your very existence puts things into perspective. And the Hunt was his ticket out of the grime of Little Whinging.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Every dedicated gunter intensely studied Gellert’s Grimoire from cover to cover, all twenty seven hundred pages of it. The autobiography of the man himself, it had been released a week after his death, and contained many ‘insignificant’ details about his life.

Nothing about Gellert Grindelwald was insignificant.

Harry glanced down at the notebook in front of him, chewed out pencil in hand. Throughout the Grimoire, several letters had been highlighted. And when he wrote them down in the order they had appeared, they spelled out another rhyme.

“In thy origin layeth the first clue  
Search wherein you find what you need to go through  
Within Elder, Oak and mislaid stones  
Drop thy name, and let the Hunt unfold.”

Harry was sure he wasn’t the first person to have found the clue. Needless to say, every gunter was fighting for themself or their clan, and would not be foolish enough to let the world know they were a step closer to the Hunt than the rest of them.

The gunters, despite their initial enthusiasm, had begun dwindling in number, and honestly, no one could blame them. In the beginning of the 2080s, everyone and their grandmother wanted to complete the hunt. But after the scoreboard that tracked the Hunt remained empty for a decade, the numbers dropped, and life in the OASIS returned to how it was before Gellert Grindelwald’s death. People went back to socializing, running businesses and having fun, while the more adventurous sought out battle territories and tried to up their stats.

Not many people bothered to level up their characters. An avatar could be levelled up to the third level by simply completing mundane tasks like going to school, converting their first credits, and shopping online for the first time. The original gunters strove harder, seeking out bosses from video game recreations and gaining experience by beating them, managing to drag themselves up twenty or thirty levels. 

This was also the time that people finally found out what happened when an avatar died. They lost all their money, weapons and artifacts that were in their inventory - the only things that remained safe were the ones they stored at their safe houses or in banks.

Beyond thirty levels, not many bothered to try levelling up as the gains of health and stamina stats were barely noticeable. 

Harry, therefore, took great pride in his fifty three levels of experience.

With a sigh, the emerald eyed man shut his notebook and got up from his seat. Having fed and watered himself, he was all set for another day of grinding and improving his character while he tried to crack the clue.

Slipping on the rigged ropes with an ease that came from practice, he quickly fixed his position before reaching for his haptic gloves and DH visor. His iris was scanned, and he quickly belted out the first line of his favourite song - it made for a good password.

“Scan complete. Voice identification complete. Welcome back, Player.”

  
  


___________________________

  
  


Harry opened his eyes to find himself inside his house, the last place he had been in before logging out. After doing a quick scan to ensure no one had broken in (not that he doubted his security, he had invested a fortune in it), he swiped through his inventory and took out the few weapons which had been damaged in his last fight, replacing them with the spare ones he had in his house. He certainly had enough to fill an armoury and then some.

A message popped up in the periphery of his vision. An unprompted smile slipped onto his face as he saw who the message was from, and he accepted it.

_ >>Hey Owl, wanna hang out today? We haven’t had a nice talk in foreverrrrr. _

Grinning, he quickly spoke out a reply.

_ >Sure, usual place in an hour? _

A reply arrived within seconds.

_ >>You got it. _

Chuckling, he took out the Firebolt broom from his inventory - the one mode of transport that didn’t require fuel, and hence allowed him to travel for free. Though it wasn’t efficient to travel cross-planet on it, it would do for this journey.

He walked out of his living room, glancing back to smile at the castle he called home - Gryffindor Castle. It was also in the middle of nowhere, which meant he wouldn’t have to worry about hiding from sight as he swung a leg over his broom. If any muggle had been in sight, Harry wouldn’t have been able to take his broom out of his inventory.

A push with his feet, and he was off the ground. He took a moment to revel in the weightless feeling that took over, before activating his invisibility spell. It wouldn’t do to be seen by muggles and suddenly have his broom vanish mid-flight.

  
  


___________________________

  
  


Muggles were all the players in the OASIS who did not have the mana stat, which was to say, most of them.

Mana was a special power that was bestowed upon people who completed a particular quest - one that had no instructions and directions, and the player had to follow his instincts.

...Well, that was all quests after level ten. But the mana stat was easily the best reward anybody could receive, and Harry had stumbled upon it by pure luck. It came with an instruction card, which stated that the artifacts that could be used after receiving the stat were to be used out of sight of non-mana players. Brooms were one of them.

The mana stat was magical strength, and like every other stat, could be increased by grinding and practicing. And unlike the one-time use spells that could be purchased by anyone, the mana stat allowed the player to cast any spell they had the knowledge of for any duration at any intensity, as long as they had enough magical strength left to do so.

Harry, after receiving the stat back when he was merely a level seven, had proceeded to train his character every single day for hours together. Practicing martial arts simultaneously in the physical and virtual world allowed him to increase his stamina, which led to him slowly watching his bar of health inch upward as well. And once he had exhausted himself physically, he would practice magic, the one stat that had no verbal or physical cues, just mental ones. 

The DH visor could pick up electric signals directly from a player’s brain.

Harry withheld a chuckle as he thought about his best friend. The DH mental cue picker was as close to mind-reading as it came, and he would blow a fuse if he ever found out.

  
  


___________________________

  
  


Harry landed in a back alley of Incipio and put his Firebolt back into his inventory before cancelling his invisibility spell and walking out.

Incipio; the planet where it all began. It was the place where the new avatars spawned, and also the planet where there were the most number of malls, coffee shops, and other earth-like hangout spots. There were planets with zero-gravity bars and also personalized chat rooms which were like a simulation within a simulation, but sometimes, it was nice to go back to one’s roots, to the beginnings.

Harry was about to step out of the alley and join the crowd before he realized something. Quickly switching to his settings, he turned off the option that displayed his avatar name above his head like a neon sign.

He may or may not have made a name for himself as a battler. 

Once he was as anonymous as he could be, he joined the milling crowd. Incipio contained several huge plazas which could easily fit a million people each. And each of these plazas were situated thousands of acres away from each other. The gaps in between were filled with dense forests, though there were no dangerous creatures that could harm anyone.

Plaza. Forests. Plaza. That was literally all Incipio was.

Harry was in the British plaza, and he quickly began walking towards the forest on the east. Several minutes of pushing through groups of people later, he found himself in front of a pub he knew very well.

He pushed open the door to Three Pegs, a small pub right at the edge of the forest. 

  
  


___________________________

  
  


“Hey Rosmerta,” he greeted the kind lady behind the bar counter. As far as he knew, she could be anyone from a sixteen year old girl in need of money to a seventy-three year old man who took simple pleasures in creating perfect drinks.

“Little owl,” she said enthusiastically. “Your friend is at the back,” she added with a wink.

Emerald_Owl groaned as he made his way to the back row of booths, ignoring the laughter behind him and thankful that the place was only populated with regulars. He should have never let these people know he was gay.

“Aech,” he said enthusiastically as he reached the person sitting at their usual table. 

“Owl!” The male looked up, brown eyes twinkling as he jumped out of his seat to quickly hug him. 

He returned the embrace, feeling another body ghost against his but not really feeling the warmth of it. The DH headset could replicate motions, emotions and feelings, but it would never be able to successfully replicate a complete human touch. Nevertheless, he appreciated the sentiment. 

Greetings done, he slid into the seat opposite Aech.

“How’ve you been, Owl? I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages,” Aech whined. 

Emerald_Owl grinned. “It’s been only four days. Careful Aech, or I might start thinking you like me.”

Aech rolled his eyes and didn’t bother dignifying it with a response, simply taking a sip of the drink Rosmerta brought over a second later.

While the OASIS couldn’t provide sustenance to the human body, the headset the DH developed directly poked at your nerves, and with a few tiny shocks, it allowed a person to feel with all five senses. There was a reason it was a revolutionary creation.

“Really, how have things been with you?” Emerald_Owl asked curiously. 

Aech glanced around, before his voice dropped to a whisper. “I gained another level,” he said excitedly. 

Emerald_Owl grinned. “That’s awesome,” he replied, voice low to not draw attention. “You’re now level forty seven, right?”

“Yes, and it’s such a good feeling,” Aech leaned back in his seat. “So close to level fifty. Is this how you felt?”

His companion smiled and nodded. “Fifty is going to be a power boost,” he explains conspiratorially.

Aech gasped. “I knew there was a reason you are my best friend.”

“What, the intel?”

“Duh. I’m guessing you’re still trying to crack the first clue.”

“You say that as if _you’ve_ cracked it, Aech.”

“Even if I had, I wouldn’t tell you!”

True. The only gunters who shared their clues were ones in clans, groups of people who had contracts written up to share their winnings equally amongst themselves.

Owl chuckled and changed the topic of conversation.

  
  


___________________________

  
  


Clans could range from a duo to a team of a hundred players. The most famous ‘clan’, however, was MoM.

MoM was a real world company that specialized in tech gears - they had tried to form a partnership with Deathly Hallows several times in the past and always failed. However, that hadn’t stopped them from becoming enthusiastic participants of the Hunt. 

Every MoM employee had signed contracts that stated that if their avatar won the Hunt, the ownership and stocks of the OASIS would fall on the hands of the company, while said employee could keep the cash winnings. In return, they received a stable paycheck, food, lodging, health care, and a retirement plan - in the current situation, that was worth a _lot._

This spelled disaster for the world in general, because MoM believed that the OASIS was not being used correctly - a spokesperson for the company had let slip that if the MoM won control over the game, it would monetize its usage, which would consequentially lead to most of the world not being able to use it and losing access to basic aspects of their life like education, entertainment and a social life.

It was an understatement to say that gunters disliked the MoM. No one really knew what the acronym stood for, but no one really cared. MoM employees were collectively known as Sixers - every MoM avatar had the same username, the letters MOM followed by a unique six digit ID. 

It wasn’t obvious at first glance if someone was a Sixer - most of them changed their display name and avatar - but in some battle arenas and a few other competitions where usernames were displayed, it was an unspoken rule that any gunter fighting would team up and take the Sixers down first, before proceeding to have a fair game. On the bright side, this made it much harder for sixer avatars to level up.

On the dark side, however, the additional fights they needed to get into to climb up levels meant that their health and stamina stats were the best across the entire OASIS. Not entirely good news, but the low levels at least prevented them from having access to a few rare artifacts - most of them didn’t need a specific level to be used, but the few that did were certainly catastrophic. 

  
  


___________________________

  
  


After his hour-long conversation with Aech, Harry excused himself and slipped out of the Three Pegs pub, which was right at the edge of the British server Plaza. Incipio was the planet which was closest to Earth in its modelling. The plazas represented a country or groups of countries, and the styles of shops you could find on each of them reflected that very well. But he had more important things to focus on - mainly, working on the clue and gaining some more health and mana points.

OASIS’ graphics were _the_ best, meaning that pairing their incredibly detailed virtual worlds with their out of the world technology gear essentially made a player forget that they were, in fact, inside a game.

Harry took in a deep breath, and though he logically knew that he was still in the back of a rusty old truck, he could feel the wind on his face, and if he concentrated hard enough, he could catch a whiff of pine and a smell that was distinctly forest. It was a nice change from the polluted airs of the outside world that he was still breathing.

The forests of Incipio were nothing too unearthly, but they were dense enough to provide Harry the cover he preferred when training skills. After jogging for a few minutes, he deemed himself far enough from the rest of the population, and took a quick glance around. There was nothing out of the ordinary, tall trees, a forest floor, and butterflies fluttering around.

  
  


The OASIS was an extremely realistic rendition of the real world, but cooler. Just like in the real world, constant practice of a skill like martial arts and other fitness regimes increased an avatar’s endurance and stamina. However, it also, at the same time, put them at risk of overworking their character’s body like their physical one, and used up their energy/stamina bar - this was a function that had been implemented to prevent people from increasing any stats by constant grinding for hours on end, by keeping human limitations on virtual beings.

This proved to be very helpful, as Harry’s fitness levels matched his avatars and he could stay healthy by working out in two worlds simultaneously.

After physically exhausting himself, the raven-haired man sat down on a rock, lotus style. He pulled out a spellbook from his inventory, and flipped through it to find the page he was looking for. Quickly reading through it, he snapped the book shut, and then closed his eyes, concentrating hard.

Non-verbal magic was much harder than verbal magic, for obvious reasons. For one, there was no verbal command cue for his DH visor to pick up on and implement. The most obvious way to get around it was by gestures or hand cues. It wasn't, however, a very good method, because the haptic gloves were extremely motion sensitive - even the slightest change in movement could ruin the spell, and that could prove to be disastrous.

The second method was much more discrete, and more widely used. It took advantage of a DH headset feature only mages were aware of - mind reading. It could pick up electric signals directly from your brain. This, however, took much more practice than simply creating a gesture and mapping a spell to it. Harry remembered reading about it - machine learning. Essentially, through regular practice, he was teaching his headset what the thought of a spell looked like in his head.

He e closed his eyes and cleared his mind of thoughts as well as he could, before trying to imagine a single flame in front of his face. He didn’t have to open his eyes to see the fire in front of him, he could feel the slight warmth against his nose. He continued through his basic exercises, trying to manipulate the flame with as minimal thoughts as possible. The smaller his thoughts, the quicker the signals could be picked up by his headset and put into action. Then he proceeded to repeat the exercise with different elements, even managing to create a tiny bolt of lightning before losing focus. Finally, he pulled out a book of spells he had purchased in a hidden shop, and picked out a handful to practice, following the same process he always had.

He opened his eyes. He had taken the hard route to practicing magic. Mages he had met in Hogsmeade, a magic-only planet, simply practiced spells from books that could be purchased, repeating those over and over until their visor could pick it up even amongst a mess of other thoughts. It was like repeatedly making a pup pick out a particular object from a group of them.

Unlike Harry, who was training his mind to work with his visor, they were training their technology to work for them. It certainly seemed easier, but Harry didn’t understand how it was an efficient method. He trained until his headset knew exactly how the thought to do something looked like, and could pick it out in any situation, whereas the people he met simply practiced different spells multiple times until their headset picked out the one similar thought and acted it out. What about situations which your visor had never encountered before? It would be so confused and end up performing the wrong spell!

But then again, Harry was no expert on mind-reading - he wasn’t even sure if a poor DH operator knew about his crush on random people just because he fantasized too loudly about them one day.

Mind-reading would freak most people out; Aech was on top of that list. But Harry honestly didn’t care much about anything anymore. Having grown up in a household that could be classified as abuse if his relatives didn’t pass it off as ‘living in hard times’, the OASIS was Harry’s only refuge. 

And if that meant that some of his thoughts might not be his - did it really matter?

___________________________

  
  


Meditating and focusing on a single thing for long stretches of time could give anyone a headache. Hopping off his rock, Harry stretched himself out before checking the time - it had been three hours since his meeting with Aech, and he had managed to finish his training for the day.

A wide smile slid across his face. He had quite some time to spare before his stomach demanded lunch, so he opened the web from a sidebar in his vision range. It was time to check out some gunter forums and websites.


	3. Chapter 3

Most gunter forums were barely active - the passing of an entire decade since Grindelwald’s death had brought down everyone’s spirits about the Hunt, with absolutely no leads, but a few dedicated pages continued to post information about the man, hoping to find some hints to the clue. Of course, Harry had no doubt that most of it was meant to be misleading, but even a tiny scrap of information which nudged him in the right direction was appreciated, and he could cross-check it later at the Grand Central Library or the GCL, the one place other than schools where anyone could teleport to for free.

A few more gunter forums had, instead of focusing on a seemingly impossible Hunt, turned their attention towards the MoM. The company had built something called ‘Loyalty Centres’ all around the world. They would loan cash or credit to a person in desperate need at an absurd rate of interest, and then put them in one of these Centres to pay off their dues, by performing manual labour, mostly in the OASIS. It was like forced militarization.

The forums took to tracking down Sixers and their activities, and even trying to destroy as many of the MoM avatars as they could. Harry remembered that there was even a clan competition for the maximum number of Sixers killed. Of course, finding out a Sixer was half the challenge - they had become quite adept at hiding themselves after figuring out that despite their large numbers, they could still be taken down if they were out and about.

Sixers were quite despised. Not for who they were as people, but because of who they worked for. However, they couldn't really be blamed either - with the state of the entire world in shambles, anyone would seek the stability MoM employees received. 

And the MoM provided every Sixer, after their contract signing, with the best weapons, vehicles and armours money could buy - some of the more powerful weapons were fortunately artifacts that could only be won through beating quests. The only way to tell that an avatar belonged to a Sixer was to find an MoM logo hidden somewhere on their outfit - since they belonged to one company, they were required to wear their ‘clan’ logo in a visible place.

Maybe it wasn't the Sixers fault, but every downed Sixer meant a blow to MoM; however small, it would still hurt, especially since avatars lose everything they had on person. And so the war against them continued.

Harry couldn’t hold in his snort as he read one of the more famous forums, the “Dark Mark.” It was a playback of a fight that had broken out between an MoM troop and a famous clan called the “Death Eaters.” The gunters had had no problem taking down the poor Sixers ruthlessly.

The Death Eaters was a clan that had originally started out as a fanbase; all the players had been obsessed with a top gunter called Lord_V. Harry had to admit that he could have easily been one of them. 

Lord_V had started out as a blogger four years ago, putting out articles and posts about his search for the first clue, along with essays on random trivia about the OASIS in general. Sixteen years old and bored out of his mind, Harry had read his first posts and instantly fallen in love with the person’s witty writing, sardonic comments, and dark humor.

And then, a month later, Lord_V had posted an audio clip. 

The man’s voice was smooth and velvety, somehow seeming like dark chocolate and sweet honey at the same instant. Harry had not thought twice before hitting the subscribe button that would notify him every time there was something new on his page.

Harry knew, of course, that the person might have been using a voice modifier to make themselves sound good to attract more viewers, but he had a niggling feeling that it was the man’s real voice. And there were very few things he let himself indulge in, so he let Lord_V become his guilty pleasure.

Lord_V’s avatar did not match his voice, at all. While his voice made you think tall, dark and handsome, his avatar was - well, still tall, but a scalie. The player had obviously let themselves use OASIS’ avatar modifiers to the fullest, giving himself glowing crimson eyes, a face based off a snake with slits for a nose, and a tall, slim body that moved with the hypnotic grace of a reptile.

Somehow still attractive, if in an extremely non-conventional way.

Harry didn’t understand his own mind sometimes.

Lord_V’s latest blog post was a rambling post about a conspiracy that Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore had split up because of Albus’ nefarious plan to take down his partner and take over the Deathly Hallows for himself. Harry choked on his breath as he read through it - V’s words insinuated that the two tycoons had been in a relationship before they went their different ways. He wrinkled his nose. Albus Dumbledore was old and white and wrinkly - it was extremely hard imagining him as a young man who could have paramours of his own. 

Shaking his head to rid himself of thoughts he shouldn’t have thought about in the first place, Harry checked on a few news bulletins as well. The scoreboard on the International OASIS Feed, that tracked the Hunt, still had ten empty name slots with a series of zero in the points column. The same scoreboard also had physical versions at every plaza at Incipio, and outside the Library - two of the most frequented places.

Swiping to clear his visor of webpages, Harry could clearly see the forest around him again.

Having nothing better to do at the moment, he pulled up his e-notebook, where he had stored every little thing he thought could help him with the first clue of the Hunt. He flipped it open to find the little rhyme staring back at him tauntingly.

“How can four tiny sentences cause so much stress,” he groaned. Pulling out an ever-present quill from his pocket (he liked being fancy, sue him), he began chewing on its tip as he read through the messages he had deciphered from it.

“Drop thy name and let the Hunt unfold - I need to put in my name somewhere, obviously, and that will mean I started the Hunt. Within Elder, Oak and mislaid stones? Elder tree; a symbol of the cycle of life… it’s also a symbol of grief,” he read quietly to himself. “The oak is a symbol of wisdom.” 

Wisdom and grief, that was the only clue he had managed to decipher that pointed him to a location. On which planet, Harry didn’t know, but in the Grimoire, Grindelwald had a chapter named Wisdom and Grief, where he had told the world he owed Albus Dumbledore an apology.  
Hidden in the chapter had been bold characters that led to a link with a video; the apology that he had mentioned. Gellert Grindelwald’s OASIS character had stood in the Great Hall of a castle called Hogwarts for the recording. Hogwarts was a hidden easter egg in one of his video games - no one had found the recreation of the castle in OASIS, however, and Harry had a suspicion that it was the location of the first key to the Hunt.

That was the only thing he knew, though.

“Go through something? Thy origin?”

After a few more minutes of racking his brain, Harry gave up and shut the notebook, getting up and stretching languidly. 

Most of his time on OASIS, after he had passed out of school, was spent training, participating in competitions to earn some money, and trying to crack the first clue.

The last one was an utter failure.

  
  


___________________________

  
  


Harry wandered about in the forest, lost in his thoughts. He could teleport to another planet, a PvP zone or a competition and do something more productive, but teleportation required credits. And though he had accumulated quite a bit of them, he was extremely frugal with them; they _were_ what paid for his food and water, after all.

His mind began wandering. He was legally an adult, but he still couldn’t leave the Dursley’s - he had nowhere else to go, and not enough money to survive by himself yet. If the Hunt didn’t work out for him, he would probably be stuck in Little Whinging for the rest of his life, and that was a situation he would rather avoid. It was the reason why he was so invested in a seemingly impossible quest. 

Harry said ‘seemingly’ because he was sure Grindelwald couldn’t actually want his little game to be impossible to solve, thus being uncertain about who his fortune would end up with. With the passage of a decade, people and non-existent governments were vying for the money and shares of the company to be split. Never equally; the days of sharing and caring were long past. However, the creator was a control freak - he would have wanted to be certain that the control of the OASIS wouldn’t end up in the hands of someone like the MoM.

At least, he hoped it was not impossible.

  
  


___________________________

  
  


After taking one last glance around, Harry decided it was time to try testing himself again. He was going to head to a dangerous planet to test out his fighting skills, via teleportation this time. He did have enough credits to splurge once in a while. Stepping out onto the cobblestone of the plaza again, he headed for the nearest teleportation terminal, detached from his surroundings. There were all sorts of people milling about, laughing and gossiping. Big screens were present every few hundred feet, displaying news bulletins, old news clips and anything else that caught the fancy of the operator at the moment.

He had nearly reached the terminal when a screen caught his eye. It was an old interview with Gellert Grindelwald, one of the rare few that the eccentric man had given. Fumbling for his headset, he quickly tapped the side before swiping through the screen that appeared in front of his eyes, allowing his audio to tune in to that screening.

It was an old interview, rare because Grindelwald barely appeared in the public eye.

“We are live with Gellert Grindelwald, the gaming industry tycoon!” A young reporter nearly yelled into her mic. Her starstruck eyes were practically glued to said man, who shifted uncomfortably. She was seated across from him in a comfortable armchair, and in between them, on the table, was a holographic projection of-

“Mr. Grindelwald, ‘the OASIS is going to take the world by storm’ were your exact words when you described your latest creation?”

“That is correct.”

“And you believe it is the future of humanity?”

“Yes.” The anti-social man was known for his extremely short answers; the reason why Dumbledore had usually handled the press. 

“Can you tell me what this is?” The reporter asked, gesturing to the map. It was a map of-

“Incipio, a planet in the OASIS.” He straightened in his chair, his dry and monotonous voice gaining some colour. “It is the beginning of _everything.”_ For the first time in the public eye, the stoic man was displaying vivid emotions. Grindelwald’s eyes were bright, and the passion in his words was undeniable. “It is the origin of OASIS, the portal into this new world where human kind is going to live.”

“Those are some big claims, Mr. Grindelwald.”

“True, nonetheless.”

Harry tuned out of the news clip - it was the very first interview about the OASIS, and he had watched it quite a few times already.

Reaching the teleportation terminal, he typed in the name of the planet he wished to travel to, and selected his drop location, before stepping into a booth and inserting his ticket into the required slot.

He was glad he had his armour and some of his best weapons with him. Planet Doom had gained its name for a reason.

  
  


___________________________

  
  


Planet Doom, like its name suggested, was a gloomy place. The ground was completely covered in black volcano rocks, with cracks that let out lava. There was a single dark castle atop a mountain - it was surrounded by sharp pointy rocks that looked impossible to scale. The planet was a no PvP zone, but that didn’t mean it was any less dangerous. Thousands of NPCs stalked the grounds of Doom, and they were not exactly easy to destroy. The base of the mountain in particular was surrounded by an ender dragon and several other hostiles from the famous 21st century game Minecraft.

Harry glanced around - if there were any other players around, he wouldn’t mind striking a temporary alliance. He spotted a group of players some distance away, and jogged over.

“Hello,” he greeted when he was a few metres away.

A woman looked up; Harry nearly took a step back as he met her eyes - there was a maniacal gleam in them he didn’t want to cross. She had wild curly hair, and she definitely fit the whole classic goth vibe. He recognized her at once. B_Black was a part of the Death Eater clan, and also the infamous Black Sisters Trio. She was a ruthless fighter in PvP battles, especially against Sixers, though he couldn’t blame her for the latter. OASIS seemed to cater to her violent tendencies - her victims must have been extremely grateful for the sensory dampeners that activated automatically in fights, else the torture they suffered under B_Black’s weapons would have driven them insane.

Harry wondered for a brief moment where she had learnt her ‘special’ set of skills from.

He quickly glanced around. He recognized all of the people present. They were, like B_Black, top members of the Death Eaters Clan. Potioneer, Dragon_650 and JuniorX - he wasn’t sure why the last man was named so. He was glad he wasn’t being offensive by assigning genders to each of them because they had stated their preferred pronouns on their forums. Not that Harry was a fan. Of course not.

“Hello,” B_Black sing-songed, childish curiosity colouring her voice. Her craziness was half her armoury.

“Temporary alliance?” Harry asked, direct and to the point. Temporary alliances were very common, he just had to hope he wouldn’t have to fight through an entire army of hostiles to get to the castle - there was no way he would succeed. There were very few people who had managed to make it inside Castle Doom, and they were clan members who had just managed to outnumber the NPCs; even then, only a handful actually reached the gates.

“Who the hell are you, noob?” Dragon650 asked with a haughty raise of his eyebrow. His character, unlike his companions, was a little less human. Harry supposed it was the dragon wings attached to the blond’s back. Those must have been expensive - doubly so if they actually worked; wings that allowed you to fly were mage-exclusive, and required a purchasable spell that would give you flight for around two hours.

He recognized the avatar nonetheless - it was hard to forget how one’s school bully looked. 

Why didn’t he recognize Harry’s avatar? He would understand not recognizing names; after all, the school system just issued a unique number ID to let students retain their anonymity, but Harry hadn’t changed his avatar much, except getting a haircut and getting rid of the glasses his avatar had copied from his real body.

He was a little offended that they didn’t recognize his avatar name, though. Emerald_Owl, while not the highest level gunter out there, was still powerful and well-respected, and not gaining recognition from people on the same level as him (maybe a little more or less powerful, but he was averaging) was a big blow to his self-esteem -

Right. His name tag was still switched off. A swipe and tap later, he was receiving disbelieving glances from the males in the group.

B_Black let out a maniacal cackle. “Itty bitty Owl. Very well, let’s see if you can get to the castle with our help. Till the gate, and then you’re on your own.”

Harry nodded. “Fair.”

“Are you a -” JuniorX paused for a second. “Mage? Never mind, that answered my question.”

It certainly did - it was literally impossible to mention magic around muggles.

Potioneer, who’d been standing still until then, finally spoke up. “Game plan, can we get on with it?” he asked gruffly. His pale avatar reminded Harry of vampires.

_He can definitely pull off the look… and the attitude._

Dragon650 suddenly snapped his fingers. “I remember you,” he said. “Little kid walking around with a default avatar. _You’re_ Owl?!” 

Harry looked up at the name tag floating over his own head, and then met grey eyes again. “It’s called flying under the radar. Something you’ve never understood, I’m guessing.”

B_Black let out another fit of laughter. “Oh, I like this one. But chop, chop, we haven’t got all day.”

She quickly outlined the plan, it was simple enough.

He wouldn’t be Harry Potter unless he managed to mess up said plan, though.

  
  


___________________________

  
  


“Six ‘o clock, Junior!” Harry yelled as he shot down another creeper with his pulse rifle. JuniorX flipped over a skeleton - Harry wondered if he was using an immersion rig or just haptic gloves - and began flinging around lightning bolts, taking out the mob that had been trying to eat him.

“Thanks, Owl.”

Being a small group of five gunters, a direct attack on the milling army around Castle Doom was a suicide mission. They had instead decided to follow an arrow formation and pierce through the thinnest part of the army, even though it meant tougher opponents.

“Heads up,” Dragon spoke through the comm, clearing a path in front of B_Black from his spot in the sky. “We’re nearing the dragon.”

Harry quickly reached into his inventory and selected a plasma grenade. He could see the black and silver beast up ahead, looking a little more frightening than it did in Minecraft. 

Harry tried not to let his hands shake as he took in the sight of the massive creature. He really hoped he wouldn’t die on planet Doom; he couldn’t afford to lose the money he had on him.

Potioneer put up a shield against a blast of arrows from skeletons. “Watch yourself,” he snapped. 

Harry didn’t bother responding. As feet hit the ground rhythmically, he didn’t let himself falter. The smell of fire and brimstone surrounded his senses as they got closer. 

Instead, he spoke to Dragon - “Get him ready to spit fire.”

“You want me to play bait?!”

The sole female’s voice cut in. “Do it, Dragon.”

B_Black was the leader, and the blond had no choice but to obey.

“This was _not_ part of the plan,” Potioneer’s gritted voice came through.

B_Black danced out of the way as the dragon tried to breathe her to ashes. “Plans are _boring,_ lighten up!”

“If I die, I’m going to haunt you for the rest of your life, Owl!” Dragon grumbled, but swooped towards the dragon. Hah, dragon. Get it?

Harry shook his head to rid himself of the weird thoughts his mind somehow conjured. From where, he had no idea. 

Once more reaching into his inventory, he pulled out his Firebolt, getting on fluidly and flying up, in the opposite direction as Dragon. He easily controlled the broom with one hand, as he flew higher and higher, to get on the beast’s eye level. The plasma grenade was practically stuck to his hand, considering how tightly he was clutching it.

As the Ender dragon opened his mouth to turn the blond to ashes, Harry aimed, hand pulled back, before throwing the grenade as hard as he could. It was not a moment too soon, as the air around him heated up. The dragon had nearly hit Dragon with its flamethrower, but the blond managed to swerve to the side in the last second. The plasma grenade seemed to fly in slow motion, straight towards the dragon’s mouth.

It hit bullseye, and the silver hostile closed its mouth in confusion at the metallic clink - and then it began to glow.

“Get down!” Harry ducked his head downwards just as the dragon exploded outwards. For a second, his vision went black, as smoke and pixelated creature remains stay suspended in the air before shimmering away - no spoils could be collected from something that blew up, but at the moment, he was grateful for it, as the field in front of him reappeared, now suspiciously empty of hostiles.

The group now had a clear path to the mountain, having taken out the main obstacle in their way. 

B_Black began sprinting as throwing knives appeared in her hands, Junior and Potioneer on her heels as they blasted away the last stragglers. Harry joined Dragon in the air, speeding a little ahead to weaken the mobs before they reached the foot-dwellers. 

Three steps. Two. One. Harry landed in the no-flight dome surrounding the Castle of Doom, relieved that he had made it. The alliance meant he still had enough stamina to attempt to scale the mountain - the last time, he had been exhausted and ended up spending the night at the base of the mountain, eternally grateful that the no-flight zone was also a no-hostiles one. 

Dragon_650 landed next to him just as his wings shimmered out of existence. He was bent over and trying to catch his breath. “You okay?” Harry asked, slightly concerned but not enough to care.

“I nearly got torched by a bloody dragon because you wanted to try stunts; what do you think!?”

Fair point. But it had worked - Harry didn’t get why the blond was complaining, now that they were just a climb away from the castle. “But you’re alive,” he decided to say cheerfully.

Dragon opened his mouth to retaliate, scowl on his face -

“That was good,” B_Black spoke up as she stepped into the dome with the rest of the group. “You’re good, little owl.” Her voice had lost some of its bite, and now held a more curious tone.

Harry shrugged as he put away his broom and pulled out a pair of fingerless gloves from the small part of his wardrobe that he carried. He wasn’t the best out there, not by a long shot. While almost every gunter kept their exact level hidden, it wasn’t that hard to get an approximate - and the people near him were certainly in level 50s and 60s. It was seriously impressive, and their fighting skills had shone through during the fight.

“Thanks. For letting me tag along.” He began to walk away, only to pause when he felt a hand latch on to his elbow. He looked down at manicured black nails digging into his skin, and then up at the woman it was attached to.

“We said until the castle,” B_Black said with a crazy smile. In the background, Dragon bemoaned his luck. 

Harry wasn’t sure about the game that was being played, but he was certainly wary. 

“...alright, then, lead the way.”

  
  


___________________________

  
  


The climb was not easy. It was also not silent, like Harry had been hoping. He was bombarded with questions from B_Black; her companions seemed to be more than happy to let her do the talking.

Harry interrupted her next question. “You all started as a fan base.” 

B scowled, but then a smile lit up her face. “Yes. Lord Voldemort is quite impressive, you can’t blame us.”

Harry thought back to the folder dedicated to Lord_V in his own virtual computer, and nodded. “True. Is he -” he paused. “The V stands for Voldemort?!”

“Yes. He met us once, you know, and he told us.” B practically had hearts in her eyes. 

“Really!? Is he a part of your clan?” 

A snort sounded from behind him. Harry glanced at Junior. “He said he doesn’t do clans,” the sandy blond man said, a bitter note in his voice. “We offered all our best gunters, but he refused.”

B snickered. “You’re just upset he refused to go on a date with you, Junior.”

_What?_

“Lord_V is a bastard who thinks he is so much better than us!” Junior grumbled.

_Well, someone doesn’t take rejections well._

“He is much better than us. He’s really close to level hundred, I’m sure.” Harry’s eyes widened. There were 200 levels in the OASIS, but only about one percent of its population even crossed the level 50 mark. “And to be fair, he’s always been a lone wolf - trying to force him into our clan was not our best move.”

“I do also believe it had something to do with the fact that your clan has nearly a hundred people and he would have to split spoils,” Harry interrupted.

B shook her head. “We only have twelve members. The rest are recruits.”

That was a _lot_ of recruits. Gunters who affiliated themselves with a clan but were not really a part of it. The fact that a twelve-person army had so many - it said a lot about how powerful the Death Eaters were.

Harry backtracked. “Why are you telling me all this?” He quickly moved his foot from the hold he had placed it on, a second before the landing crumbled. Hurriedly, he pulled himself onto a ledge.

“She’s trying to recruit you,” Potioneer said with a sigh, somewhere from his right.

Harry whirled his head towards B, who shrugged. “You are really powerful, and you can keep a level head in a battle. You would be good.”

“I don’t want to be your walking advertisement, wearing your logo around like I’m on show.”

B grinned a terrifying grin, sharp teeth bared and gleaming. “Not a recruit, Owl. As one of us.”

Harry froze. A part of one of the most powerful gunter clans present. 

“...Why did Lord_V refuse your offer?” 

“Like I said, lone wolf. He said he was willing to think about temporary alliances, on and off OASIS, but he was going to finish the Hunt alone.”

Harry nodded absent-mindedly, before the words registered. “You’ve met Lord_V in the real world?!”

“A fan, hmm?” B seemed to be extremely amused. “I have.”

Harry could barely breathe. “And?”

“He’s just as glorious as you would imagine, little Owl. I can see why he would refuse to lower himself to our level. Temporary alliances are good enough.”

“She’s exaggerating!” Junior cried out. “He’s not that amazing. He’s probably a really old man who had all the time in the world to become as good as he is -” B snorted. Loudly. “- and he’s just a _jerk-”_

“Shut up, Junior. You’re just saying that because you haven’t met him,” Dragon threw over his shoulder as his fingers grazed the top. He quickly pulled himself up.

“And you have?” Junior asked once all of them were standing outside Castle Doom, eager to continue the conversation.

“Yes. And I agree with B,” Dragon said, a tone signalling the end of the conversation. “And here is where we leave you, Owl.”

Harry nodded, staring into the darkness that was Castle Doom. “Thanks, again.”

“Don’t mention it, this is a regular practice run for us,” Potioneer said with a sneer in his voice. And then the Death Eaters were gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [Tumblr!](https://duender-writes.tumblr.com/)


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